Obvious heroes get all the glory and non-obvious heroes don’t even want glory, but they don’t want their efforts thrown back in their face by the people they’re trying to help either. What is the difference between popular heroes and those who have heroic traits but are deemed troublemakers and a hassle? I prefer infamy to fame but without doing bad deeds, you can be branded infamous without being bad ya’know.

So I wanted to post this early yesterday morning but the network keeps telling me that the router in the office has been unplugged and has apparently been doing so for the last week and a half, usually after I just connect and it works it goes off whatever time of day or night 🙄

Yesterday was:

World Leprosy Day
Season for Nonviolence
School Day of Non-violence and Peace
National Inane Answering Message Day

Leprosy was renamed Hansens Disease and contrary to popular thought it’s not always contagious and if someone is treated early or cured they’re nothing to be afraid of. I understand people’s fears in life in general, the multitude of them and sympathise but when push comes to shove and people are too scared to help or even behave it really irritates me. The same goes for bullying and street theatre – when the govt told people to jump up and down and get attention if they saw someone in trouble it was just… But then most people will walk past you if you trip and act like homeless people don’t exist except as a nuisance and perhaps the trip hazard.

However today is Backwards Day (and Inspire Your Heart with Art Day) hence I’ve modified it abit and won’t use the examples I had for ‘tentativeness and trepidation about helping others’.

Below are some episodes from shows I’ve liked; the first from US private detective show ‘Monk’ (2002-2009, 8 seasons).

I rarely bought dvds and like the other media I did get they often ended up donated since I don’t like to get things that sit around taking up space. One day someone at ‘home’ had Monk on tv, I saw part of it and that was enough – I bought the season 1-4 boxset without knowing else anything about it or the characters – I don’t even remember what episode it was. I’ve always been a fan of private detective shows but I’ve not bought them without knowing I liked them.

It turned out I really liked Adrian Monk, really liked him (I liked Tony Shalhoub as Antonio in tv shows ‘Wings’ and Ian in ‘Stark Raving Mad’ too, and in the latter you can see the makings of Monk in Ian’s editor Henry). He’s weighed down by so many almost paralysing phobias (an increasing list that tops the 300 mark) which take their toll in stress and physical health, he’s also traumatized by the tragic loss of his wife Trudy, the one person who understood and soothed him. But he keeps fighting. He’d rather not have to face the outside world but he does it because he’s compelled to solve mysteries and he wants to help people; besides he has to keep going to find Trudy’s killer. There’s many things I don’t like about him e.g. he’s not biased but his fears lead him to being prejudiced so if you’re physically dirty for example it’d be hard not to be offended. He’s stingy and wasteful – again mostly out of his compulsions but he has so many that it’s hard for him to control although he manages both regularly and when push comes to shove plus at the cost of his own safety. It helps greatly that he has a group of people who really care about him, do their best to accommodate and protect him, and let him do his thing. They need each other and it’s a sincere affection rather than using & abusing. Would they care so much if he wasn’t extremely intelligent/different/special? I couldn’t say. I hope so. They admit that they can’t imagine why anybody else would like him but they do come to care, respect and realize he’s one of the most important people in their lives if not the only one they can ultimately rely on.

Monk (‘the defective detective’) is nowhere near infallible and certainly needs his friends to ease the harshness of society whilst he in turn forces them to be patient and actually use a few brain cells. He’s strong, not obviously but still, one of those few people who can see something through to the end no matter how hard, harrowing or bitter. He knows the meaning of true love and devotion too, he’s the type of person who’ll love for life; no game playing, cheating, using, lying, backstabbing, letting you down, trying it on with every person he found attractive – he’ll commit and cherish. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t chastise him for the complacent and unintentionally cruel way he treats his assistants Sharona and then Natalie sometimes. I feel even more sorry for his brother Ambrose who can’t leave his house, lives in the sadness of their mother’s death, the guilt of feeling responsible for Trudy’s death and tries to help but is seen as a bother; he illustrates what Adrian could have been had he not had help/been loved/understood. Their relationship is that of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes (though Monk is a mix of Holmes, Nero Wolfe and Poirot but with the physical mannerisms/style of Columbo) but those two were arrogant, obnoxious, conceited and privileged, caring more about the challenge/status than helping and never really knowing what’s it like to be one of the helpless and hapless being played like a pawn since they were doing the playing and in between Sherlock falls into his habits of drugs, violin playing, vain self-pity (rather than deserved since he’s rarely the underdog, suppressed/repressed/oppressed/mocked/scorned/taken advantage of) and bemoaning crime for being too boring for his great intellect (and physical strength). They were easy heroes/popular characters and sadly preferred intelligence, talent and narcissism over being ‘humane’. One who controls society and one who is a limelight icon. They towered over people, they weren’t one of them and Sherlock barely knew the feeling of sympathy/empathy though he could pretend but he wasn’t interested unless you could offer him something unusual or he was pushed by V.I.Ps, if it wasn’t for Watson as author/narrator they may as well have been machines or psychos who just happened to be ‘on the right side of the law’. I concede that at least what we saw of Sherlock wasn’t a socio sh*t stirrer if that’s any consolation and most people would love to have him on their side but that’s exactly it, if he would condescend to be on your side, patronize you and act like you weren’t important but rather the puzzle.

Anyway it’s young Julie that plays the standout commendable role here, poignant because her mother Natalie who is usually righteous and fair minded is even affected to the point of being quite shameful, whereas Monk as expected gets ridiculous.

This is an episode of a US family show called ‘Mr Belvedere’ (1985-90, 6 seasons. The original played in Black&White films by Clifton Webb) – it’s about Aids not Hansens Disease and more about how children even best friends can be affected (not that Wesley is a kind child anyway) and how different parents/authority figures behave. I’ve also just realized that it’s the daughter in this show that isn’t afraid of the issue, like Julie above. I generally like Mr Belvedere, he’s not manipulative like PG Wodehouse’s ‘Jeeves’ nor as unflappable but he was the quintessential English Butler, now he’s the avuncular bachelor housekeeper who eats too much and has caustic wit (knowing the difference between wit and just being insulting, and keeps the sardonic & sarcastic between those he’s close to and who find it funny/do the same). I probably wouldn’t like most of the company he’s kept and definitely disagree with his reverence to royalty and his taste in food but I do like his stance on most other things, and the way he tries to remedy the ills of those around him.

Last but absolutely not least is a story arc from the exceedingly interesting but not so well produced UK sci-fi show ‘The Tomorrow People’ (1973-79, 8 series). It highlights how people behave when they notice differences even superficial ones between them, how quickly and irrationally it can get ugly. The differences don’t even have to be real – remember the ‘blue eyes, brown eyes experiment’? In this story it starts by affecting the emotions of teenagers and spreads throughout the country which leads to the use of people’s dreams being turned into nightmares/terrors in order to concentrate and take that energy as a power source.

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There’s a pet shop in town that constantly advertises its bred pets for sale (like there aren’t enough rescue animals that need caring homes) and it’s behaviour modifying equipment such as microchipping and shock leads. I don’t go into shops with animals in them, I prefer ones that just supply pet food and items. There was one where I used to live where the animals were all behind glass cages and sometimes with nothing in them and there were chinchillas who’d just constantly try to dig their way out. When I ask the people how can you just watch that creatures frustration and fear they always just turn away. Like people who put birds in cages where they can’t spread their wings and cover them with a sheet/blanket in the day time and when it’s not cold. I knew one person who did that just because she thought the parrot would have a prettier voice and it didn’t, FYI it had a normal parrot voice, it’s not supposed to sound like a chirruping woodland bird and she couldn’t understand my questioning her behaviour. Then another who I had to buy warm things, feeding, bathing things for just because she couldn’t care less. How many evils can a regular do without thinking it? Heroes who put up with neglect, lack of stimuli, everyday necessities and are often still loyal to us.

Read about the hell that’s been going on at Seaworld for ages e.g. the story of Lolita the whale?

Non-humans animals everywhere being treated the way we hate to be treated but treat each other too, would be balk if we found out the same was being done to us by another species? Probably depends, we don’t mind living in a pyramid class structure afterall.

This doesn’t mean I like all non-human animals, akin to people they have power structures, bullying, torture, rape etc. There’s some studies that just make your toes curl. I think we’ve all just been under the reverse influence of ‘the three wise monkeys’ where evil exists but it’s less punishing to ignore it and believe we’re not part of its perpetuation.

It’s A Jungle Out There – Randy Newman (Monk theme song)

It’s a jungle out there,
Disorder and confusion everywhere,
No one seems to care,
Well I do.

Hey, who’s in charge here?

It’s a jungle out there,
Poison in the very air we breathe,
Do you know what’s in the water that you drink?
Well I do, and it’s a-ma-zing.

People think I’m crazy ’cause I worry all the time
If you paid attention you’d be worried too,
You better pay attention,
Or this world we love so much, might. Just. Kill. You.

I could be wrong now, but I don’t think so!
‘Cause there’s a jungle out there.